Every month, friends of Harmonic gather for a round table discussion led by artist advisor Rae Isla to discuss the business, philosophy, and craft of making and sharing music. Join us for the next one on June 16.

May’s roundtable was a candid, thoughtful conversation about redefining what it means to have a successful music release—centering on emotional fulfillment, community connection, and sustainable practices. 

In an era where success is too often measured by passive streams and metrics, it’s easy to feel “unsuccessful” when releasing music. There will always be bigger numbers to chase and more followers to attract. But whether, you have one person listening to your new song or one million, it’s important to decide for yourself what success looks and feels like, and what steps you can take to achieve that with everything you release. 

🌐 Reframing Digital Music Distribution

Most people agree that streaming platforms and social media are both frustrating and useful—it’s important to understand why they’re useful to you. Like anything, they are simply tools to help you achieve your goals. For many indie artists in 2025, a digital music release strategy looks like:

1. Posting daily on short form channels.
2. Getting fans to engage with content
3. Pre-save campaign. 
4. Song releases, post more short form videos.
5. Pitching to playlisters.
6. Being active on social media 24/7. 
7. Repeat.

This strategy is totally correct and works for many artists as a top of funnel or way to build momentum and show to bookers, brands, potential collaborators and a wide passive audience that you exist and are making great music. 

But as your numbers grow (or even if they don’t) there are other things you can do outside of a digital release to feel the sense of catharsis that releasing music is meant to give you. 

🎤 Alternative Release Ideas

From the round table, many ideas were shared for how to make a release meaningful and successful beyond the DSP drop:

• A release show at your favorite local venue. Invite your community to celebrate all your hard work and enjoy the feeling of hearing the song or album live. Make it special and accessible to everyone who wants to support you, like Bossi’s upcoming album release show at Hotel Café on June 22, 2025.
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• Themed release events featuring unique experiences—like personalized postcards, temporary tattoos, or custom-themed installations like MARINA’s celebration for her album Cuntissimo.
  

• Creative collaborations with brands that speak to the message of your music or align with who you are as an artist, like brewing a custom NA beer with a local brewery for a song about alcoholism (self plug!)

These types of activations not only deepen the artist-audience relationship but also bring back the excitement artists often lose in the grind of digital promotion. 

🤝 Community & High-Touch Engagement

Throughout the roundtable, the importance of “high-touch engagement” stood out. Things like listening events, themed spaces, and face-to-face conversations were seen not just as promotion—but as the very essence of artistry. The release is part of the creativity and world building artists get to do.

And the best part is, the things you can tangibly create through these events and collaborations, may be how fans can support you. Unique merch, hand written lyrics, polaroids from the show, small batch cassette tapes of the release—these are both the art and things fans may want to buy to feel more connected to the experience you’ve given them. 

🧭 Authentic Connection is Universal

We were lucky to have participants between the ages of 20-65 at the round table to give their perspectives, and everyone agreed that while there are generational differences in how people consume music, deep connection is a universal desire. 

💬 Thank You

Thank you to our artists, artist advocates, and fans who participated in this round table discussion and shared their opinions which contributed to this blog post. We hope that by lifting the veil on topics in the music industry and having open, honest conversations, it will lead to more sustainable careers for artists and more enjoyable experiences for fans.